Fridtjof Nansen wearing
a jacket with a fur collar, and a skull cap. The picture
is based on a photo by L. Szacinski. Image courtesy
Norwegian
Library.

History

Nansen and the Drift of the Fram
(1893-1896)

Wreckage from the Jeannette was found
by Inuit on the southwest coast of Greenland in 1884, three
years and 2900 nautical miles from where it sank. This information
suggested to a young Norwegian scientist and explorer, Fridtjof
Nansen, that just as the debris of the Jeannette had been transported
across the Arctic Ocean by the ice, so too could a vessel if
it was properly constructed to withstand the pressure of the
ice. Funded by Norwegians, a specially constructed vessel, the
Fram, was constructed with a rounded bottom to lift
the ship under ice pressure. Nansen departed Bergen, Norway
with the Fram in 1893, headed eastward along the Northeast
Passage, and turned into the ice pack north of the Lena River
in eastern Russia. For three years, the ship was carried by
the ice across the Arctic, but never exceeded 86°N latitude,
so Nansen and Frederick Johansen set out to the Pole on skis,
with kayaks, sleds, and provisions. Ridges of ice blocked their
progress northward, so they only just surpassed 86°N before
being forced to turn back and head for Franz Josef Land, about
400 miles to the south. They survived the winter season on Franz
Josef Land living in a stone hut, killing bears and walrus for
food, clothing, and burning blubber for fuel. The following
June, Nansen and Johansen reached Cape Flora, an English base
where they were returned to civilization. The Fram,
which was left in the charge of Otto Sverdrup, arrived in Tromso,
Norway on August 20, 1896, and Nansen and Johansen were reunited
with the crew the next day.

Although Nansen did not achieve the North Pole, the Fram
expedition finally put an end to the "Open Polar Sea"
theory, and made numerous scientific observations, providing
the first oceanographic data from the central Arctic. Nansen
confirmed the existence of the Transpolar Drift and discovered
that the Polar Basin was deep. Furthermore, he noticed that
ice drifts were not parallel to the wind direction, but were
consistently offset to the right, and suggested that it was
due to the rotation of the Earth (Coriolis force). In order
to explain this observation, another Norwegian, V.W. Ekman would
develop a mathematical theory to describe wind driven surface
currents. The Fram was later used to explore the Canadian Arctic
in 1898-1902 by Sverdrup, and was used by Roald Amundsen on
his trip to claim the South Pole in 1910-1912. It is now the
centerpiece of the Fram Museum in Oslo.